North Dakota
Gender-affirming care for minors hangs in balance as North Dakota trial begins
BISMARCK — A court in Bismarck on Monday, Jan. 27 kicked off a trial to decide the fate of North Dakota’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
The law, signed by former Gov. Doug Burgum in 2023, makes it a crime for health care professionals to provide gender-affirming treatment to anyone below age 18. The ban contains an exemption for adolescents who had been receiving treatment before it went into effect.
Over the course of the trial, anticipated to take eight days, attorneys will debate whether the law violates personal autonomy and equal protection rights under the state constitution.
The lawsuit is brought by North Dakota pediatric endocrinologist Luis Casas, who is challenging the ban on behalf of himself and his patients.
“This case is not as complicated as it may seem,” Brittany Stewart, an attorney for Gender Justice, said in her opening statement. “All North Dakotans have a right to personal autonomy to make decisions about the health care they need or don’t need to live happy, healthy lives as their authentic selves.”
Previously, the plaintiffs also included three North Dakota families with transgender children. South Central Judicial District Judge Jackson Lofgren
ruled earlier this month
that the families did not have standing to participate in the case because their children were receiving gender-affirming care before the law took effect, and therefore do not fall under the ban.
The families will still testify as witnesses for the plaintiffs.
Doctors and others with expertise providing care to transgender youth, including Casas, also will be called to the witness stand.
The state says the science behind gender-affirming care is not settled and that the ban is needed to protect children.
“The health care law is a constitutional regulation of practice in medicine, in the area of medical uncertainty,” Special Assistant Attorney General Joseph Quinn said in his opening statement for the state. “This is something that the Legislature has the power to do, has the right to do and it has the responsibility to do.”
Experts called by the state will testify that the standards of care are based on emerging, low-quality evidence, Quinn said.
On Monday, one of the children of the three former plaintiff families testified about his experience receiving gender-affirming care in North Dakota. The seventh grader testified under the pseudonym James Doe to protect his identity.
Doe said that today, he lives as a typical 13-year-old. He enjoys spending time with friends, plays football and is a part of the school band.
He knew he was transgender from age 4 or 5, he said.
“I kinda felt more like a boy. I liked Legos more than Barbies, more of my friends were boys,” Doe said.
Though many of his peers accepted him as a boy in elementary school, there were ways his school did not accommodate him. He had accidents because teachers wouldn’t let him use the boys restroom, for example.
After coming out to his family as transgender, he started attending therapy to help with his gender dysphoria, he said.
At age 10, Doe was referred to Casas to discuss gender-affirming treatment. He said that Casas had him wait six months to start puberty blockers.
“He made me go home to think about what I really wanted,” he said.
Doe said he started testosterone treatment at age 13. Similarly, he said Casas urged him and his family to think seriously about the treatment before pursuing it.
“It’s helped me become more comfortable with myself,” Doe said of the treatment. “Medication really makes me who I am today.”
He said he’s had to travel to Moorhead, Minnesota, to receive the treatment from Casas, which has caused him to miss school, extracurriculars and time with friends.
Most of Monday morning and afternoon, the court heard from Daniel Shumer, a pediatric endocrinologist and clinical associate professor of pediatrics for the University of Michigan.
Research indicates that transgender youth who start gender-affirming treatment during the early phases of puberty are happier and healthier than those who start gender-affirming treatment after puberty or during adulthood, he testified.
The way puberty affects the body is significant and irreversible, so being forced to undergo puberty in a way that clashes with their gender identity can be devastating to transgender adolescents, Shumer said.
“It may be nice to say that these are decisions that are best left for adults. The truth of the matter is that puberty happens during adolescence,” he said. “A young person with gender dysphoria is going through a period of time where their body is changing in a permanent way, in a manner that’s opposite to how they know themselves.”
Gender-affirming surgical procedures aren’t performed on adolescents in North Dakota. Shumer also testified that pediatric endocrinologists only prescribe puberty blockers and hormone therapy to adolescents with gender dysphoria, not pre-pubescent minors.
In his questioning of Shumer, Quinn sought to establish that experts have different opinions on
the efficacy of gender-affirming care and whether the risks of providing the medical treatment to adolescents outweigh the benefits. Quinn pointed to several articles where researchers urged caution on the administration of gender-affirming treatment to minors, and called for additional study of the topic.
Quinn asked Shumer if he is aware of any discourse over the legitimacy of the use of gender-affirming medical treatments to treat gender dysphoria.
“Certainly in state courtrooms in the last couple of years,” Shumer replied, though he maintained that the field of pediatric endocrinology has accepted the procedures as valid.
Shumer said that there is a consensus among leading medical associations that hormone therapy is safe and effective to treat gender dysphoria. He also said that the standards of care pediatric endocrinologists use to guide the treatment of adolescents with gender dysphoria are developed based on a review of clinical data.
The state before opening statements asked Lofgren to not allow the former plaintiff families to testify at the trial. Special Assistant Attorney General Daniel Gaustad argued the personal testimony of a few families is not relevant to whether the text of the law is constitutional.
Lofgren denied the request.
Prichard spared from subpoena
The plaintiffs initially had subpoenaed former Rep. Brandon Prichard, a sponsor of the ban during the 2023 session, to testify in the trial. Lofgren on Monday granted a request from the state to block the subpoena because the North Dakota Constitution protects lawmakers from being questioned about their legislative work in court.
Prichard, a Republican who represented the Bismarck area in the state Legislature until losing reelection last year, in a statement to the North Dakota Monitor said he is happy he will no longer be appearing in court, and that he hopes the health care law will stand.
“The trial is over a narrow set of facts and my testimony wouldn’t have provided anything new from what I already discussed in the deposition,” Prichard said. “My expectation was for the plaintiff’s legal team to treat me hostile and try to dig into my time as a legislator, which is privileged.”
Court records show that in a deposition, Prichard said he believes transgender people are “choosing against God.” He also said he suspects scientific research that suggested gender-affirming care is a safe and effective treatment for adolescents with gender dysphoria is fabricated by LGBTQ rights groups.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs have
told the court previously
that even minors who fall under the law’s exemption cannot access gender-affirming care in North Dakota, since medical providers are uncertain how to interpret the law.
The trial is a bench trial, which means Lofgren will issue a verdict.
This story was originally published on NorthDakotaMonitor.com
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North Dakota
The Democratic Spirit: Reflections on North Dakota History and the Declaration of Independence at 250 – America250
A state and national public forum comprising a lecture, and then a question-answer session. Kwame Anthony Appiah’s lecture commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and explore its enduring significance in American life. Appiah’s scholarship on ethics, identity, and cosmopolitanism offers a unique lens for examining democratic ideals in a diverse society. By connecting these themes to North Dakota’s historical narrative, the forum fosters civic engagement, intellectual discourse, and cultural understanding within our community.
FARGO — Drivers can expect to see a slight uptick in gas prices as a result of the Iran conflict.
As of Monday, March 2, the average for North Dakota is $2.65 a gallon. While that is a $0.13 increase from a month ago, it is significantly lower than prices a year ago.
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GRAND FORKS – The Study ND, formerly Humanities North Dakota, has received $15,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts for a statewide theater and humanities initiative in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
This commemorative investment is meant to bring historical events and figures – such as the framers of the U.S. Constitution – to life through virtual and live performances that celebrate the nation’s history.
The grant, along with funding from private sources, has made it possible for The Study ND to host “America 250” activities after the organization sustained a considerable cut in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities last year, according to Brenna Gerhardt, The Study ND executive director.
“We absorbed a 50% budget cut, resulting in a loss of $467,645 in funding,” Gerhardt said. “As a result, we had to significantly scale back our American 250 initiatives focused on American history and civics education.”
Funds received from the National Endowment for the Arts will be used to present public readings, theatrical portrayals and guided discussions to encourage audience members to reflect on the nation’s founding in 1776 and on its democratic ideals, while engaging in contemporary conversations about civic life.
All of the programming in the series organized by The Study ND, titled “American Heroes,” will be livestreamed statewide.
In the grant application submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts, “we framed the project around a simple idea: democracy requires more than information, it requires citizens who can think historically, listen well, and argue in good faith,” Gerhardt said.
“This series uses living history performances to bring consequential figures into the room, then turns the room into a civic space through moderated dialogue and related public events. We define ‘heroism’ as civic courage under pressure, the willingness to contend with hard truths, and the capacity to enlarge a community’s moral imagination,” she said.
“The project does not ask audiences to agree on a single interpretation of a figure. It invites them to grapple with complexity together, and to connect the past to the responsibilities of the present.”
When Gerhardt and her colleagues received the application for grant proposals from the National Endowment for the Arts, “we were already planning a line-up of America 250 events and it fit perfectly with what we were already planning, so then we just wrote the grant,” she said.
Private funds, including matching funds from the Bismarck-based Tom and Frances Leach Foundation, have also been provided for this project.
Details about all the events will probably be posted on the website
www.TheStudyND.org
in March, Gerhardt said.
The America 250 events, which are planned to take place at Bismarck State College, are 5-6 p.m. July 8, “Reading of the Declaration of Independence, with John Adams,” and 6-7:30 p.m. July 9, “Alexander Hamilton Speaks,” both performed by William Chrystal.
The Living History programs are planned for 7-8:15 p.m. Sept. 17, “Thomas Paine,” performed by Doug Mishler, and Oct. 6, 7-8:15 p.m, “Frederick Douglass,” performed by Nathan Richardson. Both will be moderated by Susan Frontczak.
The performers Chrystal and Richardson live in Virginia, Frontczak in Colorado,and Mishler in Nevada.
Another program, “Hemingway and Gellhorn,” is set for Sept. 16-18 at Bismarck State College, Gerhardt said. “It is part of our broader Chautauqua/living history programming connected to America 250 … (and) will feature performances and discussion centered on Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, using their lives and writing as a way to explore major questions about American identity, war reporting, public memory, and the stories we tell about freedom, conflict and responsibility.
“What I am excited about with this event is that it gives us a way to approach America 250 beyond founding-era material. In other words, it helps us show the American story is not just about 1776, but also about the generations that followed and how Americans wrestled with democracy, power, truth and moral courage.”
This program “expands the initiative beyond commemoration into reflection, dialogue and interpretation, which is where the humanities are especially valuable,” she said. “It helps us reach audiences who may be drawn in through literature, journalism and performance, not only traditional history events.”
The Hemingway and Gellhorn program fits in with America 250 in that “it broadens the frame and adds depth to the larger effort.”
Gerhardt is hoping that these activities will give participants “a better understanding of all the debates and issues going on when our country was founded, and how those debates are continuing today,” she said, “and just to be more thoughtful and informed citizens.”
College students and members of the general public will also be invited to participate in a workshop aimed at teaching participants how to build a living history performance from primary sources and historical research.
Last year, The Study ND lost a substantial amount of funding – nearly $468,000, about half of its annual budget – from the National Endowment for the Humanities for its fiscal 2025 year.
The loss of that much funding was discouraging, Gerhardt said. “Very much so, because we had a lot of activities planned for America 250 and we had to cancel a lot of them, or – like in this case – seek other funding, which we were lucky to get.”
The Study ND currently has four full-time employees, she said. “We eliminated a part-time marketing position after the cuts.”
A nonprofit organization, The Study ND provides civics, arts and cultural education programming. The organization’s programs – which include online classes, book talks, lectures and more – reached about 24,000 people in 2024, Gerhardt told the North Dakota Monitor in April 2025.
During the summer, the organization hosts a civics education program for high school and middle school social studies teachers, she said.
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